The narrative around Wales has been created by Warren Gatland and results alone

"You can write about that," said Warren Gatland after being asked about his future as Wales coach, certainly not for the first time this year.

Wales had just been beaten by Fiji in Cardiff for the very first time. Deep in the bowels of the Principality Stadium, those gathered were trying to make sense of it all.

"The pressure comes externally, basically from the media as it’s a narrative that you create," continued Gatland. "You (the media) control the narrative and write what you want."

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It's true, to an extent, that the media will have a bearing in the narrative - a frankly horrid buzzword in modern sporting parlance that, like learnings, reduces the nuances of the situation to its simplest, most digestible form. It can be a noose or a crutch.

But then, Gatland too has a bearing on the narrative. He admitted as much in his newspaper column back in March.

Speaking about Steve Borthwick's own rebuild with England, Gatland wrote in his Telegraph column: "When I spoke with Steve Borthwick following our defeat at Twickenham, he told me that he was going to have to make some changes over the next 12 months or so, given that there are a few players he does not think will make it through to the next World Cup.

"Any rebuilding phase with a national team is extremely challenging. Supporters understandably want results, but if a squad has run its course, it is the duty of the head coach to also look to the future.

"That is why messaging is so important. It is one of the biggest lessons I have learned over the years coaching on the international stage, not just to the players, but also the public.

"It is so important to control the narrative and let people know that this is the plan for the next two or three years. From personal experience, my advice to coaches is to establish the narrative after the World Cup."

So maybe the media control it, but Gatland establishes it first? Or maybe, it's the facts, pure and simple, that define it.

Ultimately, in sport these days, the 'narrative' is what you do to explain away why things aren't working. Successful teams don't need a 'narrative'.

But Wales right now, in any barometer you want to use, are not successful. 10 straight defeats at Test level, their joint-longest losing run ever.

A first wooden spoon since 2003. The prospect of a first winless calendar year since 1937. And, for the first time ever, Wales falling out of the top 10 in the world rankings.

Next week, should Wales lose to the Wallabies and Georgia beat Italy, they'll slip to 12th - another new nadir.

Since Gatland returned to the job in December 2022, he's won just six of his 22 Tests in charge - with only three of those victories being against Tier One opposition.

Those are the facts. Do all that and you don't need the media, or anyone, to control the narrative. It's all there for you in black and white.

There's always been a sense that Gatland has found the Welsh media negative. He's referred in the past to conversations with members of the Irish press pack, who apparently couldn't believe how gloomy Welsh journalists were on the brink of another Grand Slam.

For some context, the previous week had seen the Scarlets and Ospreys nearly merge in shambolic fashion. But any journalist will tell you that it's far easier and more enjoyable to write about the good times than the bad. This hasn't been an enjoyable year by any means on that front.

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But, if we go back to Borthwick and his narrative - or lack of it, as it's not a well he goes to really - the England head coach is getting as much of a kicking, if not more, from their press right now. A late defeat to Australia follows three desperately tight losses to a New Zealand side not getting the credit they probably deserve and a last-gasp loss in Lyon against France.

Prior to that, they had beaten Ireland with a remarkably impressive display. Wales, for what it's worth, haven't got within three scores of the Irish since Peter O'Mahony careered into Tomas Francis' head with his forearm in 2021.

Wales' latest defeat, just their second loss to Fiji, was mired with flashpoints that, if nothing else, sum up some of the inconsistencies surrounding this narrative.

For two weeks, the messages from camp had been simple. Defence coach Mike Forshaw noted how the pain with bringing through young players was "over now", with there "no excuses" about the need to "start winning rugby matches". Will Rowlands and Dewi Lake expressed similar sentiments.

Even Gatland himself, speaking to TNT Sport, admitted that "it's about results now".

But then, the result didn't come. Afterwards, Gatland was back to the narrative. "We’ve said we need some patience and time."

That narrative has been the prevailing one for a year, maybe more. We were warned of the need to go through some necessary pain before last year's World Cup, told how that side compared to the 2011 group just as this year's class of 2024 shares traits with Steve Hansen's side of 2003.

For the most part, people have been accepting of that. But 10 defeats on the bounce has a funny way of trying the patience of even the most sanguine of Welsh rugby supporters.

Even Jamie Roberts, a faithful Gatland lieutenant and current Welsh Rugby Union board member, admitted on S4C that he saw through how Gatland was trying to "spin" things as he added "that's the worst Wales have been in the professional era" and that he didn't think they had "moved forward".

It's probably been a trait of Gatland teams that things snowball one way or the other. Whether it's things going well or not, his side's had a tendency to become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Some of the Welsh sides in his first reign couldn't find a way to lose. Now, this Wales team - like his Chiefs team in New Zealand - can't find the means to win.

When it rains, it seems to pour. Maybe that was the point Gatland was trying to make when talking about his six-two split on the bench and how that ultimately backfired.

Granted, Wales were unlucky when Mason Grady limped off injured after 17 minutes, leaving fly-half Sam Costelow to play 47 minutes on the wing and scrum-half Ellis Bevan to take over out wide for another 16 minutes. But that was the risk they took with no outside back cover in the 23.

Then, afterwards, Gatland revealed that Costelow wasn't even meant to come on for Grady, with Bevan the intended replacement. It's hardly a great look - shambolic even for a Test side to bring on the wrong player - although the damage was done in naming a third fly-half in the matchday 23 when you had two in the starting XV.

Even, in the most basic of terms, looking at Welsh rugby through a simplified, wide angle lens, the optics of things haven't been great for some time now. On and off the field, the game in this country is a mess.

Some of that certainly hinders Gatland. He will make the point that the way Welsh rugby from top to bottom has eroded, with the system having failed, has robbed him of depth and quality.

But conversely, it begs the question of how much he himself does to aid it. The ills of Welsh rugby are many and no one man or woman is the golden bullet that will solve it, but, at a time when you're asking people for patience on this long journey, you've got to give them something to cling to.

You've got to give people a reason to hold on to hope in a landscape where that's in scarce supply, where apathy is quickly becoming the default position.

In a week when Wales women's coach left his job amid allegations of bullying, leaving the Welsh Rugby Union circling the wagons while white smoke is yet to emerge on the long-term strategic plan for the game in this country, another new low isn't ideal on the Test stage, to say the least.

But when you combine that with, in simple terms, something like naming Cory Hill as captain in the summer - a move that alienates support far more than it fosters - then it's hard to avoid the notion that some parts of the narrative building around Wales have been avoidable, even needless.

There have been other missteps - things which Gatland will see as minor and won't think anything of, but will do little to fuel the gradually shrinking credit he holds in Welsh rugby now.

Gatland won't go anywhere after this Fiji defeat. For starters, there's every chance that Wales could beat Australia next week.

They were relatively close to the Wallabies in the summer and, for all their faults, they won't defend with the naivety of a Felix Jones-less England against Joe Schmidt's side.

Were it not for the fact that this Wales team clearly struggles to close out Test matches, you could make a decent case for Wales edging out the Wallabies.

But if they don't, and then South Africa beat Wales the following week to end 2024 winless, it's still hard to see change happening. Financially, it just seems a non-starter, given how cash-strapped the game is in Wales right now.

He'll get the Six Nations, at least, unless something dramatic happens before then. In truth, the moment he revealed he'd offered his resignation after the Italy game, at a time when the narrative was around Wales' exciting future, the oxygen was taken out of that particular scenario a little.

But, as we saw on Sunday, despite what's been said before, the questions will be asked. And, as we saw on Sunday, his answers probably won't differ in weeks or months to come.

Whoever you believe controls it, the narrative will only change when results do.